Joshua is a type of Christ in many aspects; Christ as the real Joshua is the real Captain of our salvation leading us into glory and into the good land to rest and enjoy Christ, He is the grace replacing the law, and He is the present and practical Christ as the indwelling, fighting Spirit who fights against the flesh and puts it to death. Hallelujah for Christ as the real Joshua!
In the book of Joshua, we see not only how he led the people of Israel into the battle to take the good land and make it God’s kingdom; even more, in this book we see the moving of God’s economy.
When we read the book of Joshua with the glasses of God’s economy on, we will be enlightened to realize that God is moving on earth today and we as His people need to cooperate with His move.
On one hand, God is moving in us, and we are part of His move; on the other hand, He is moving on earth, and we are one with Him so that the great wheel of God’s economy would move all over the earth.
In the book of Joshua, we see the moving of God’s economy and how God’s people cooperated with Him for His move; also, we see how it is possible for us to fail concerning the move of God’s economy on earth.
When the people of Israel entered into the good land to take it, they were land-takers for God; God’s desire is to take the land and make it His kingdom and dwelling place, and God’s people cooperated with Him for that.
We are Christ-takers, those who go on with the Lord to not only live a normal Christian life but to be the overcomers who are formed as an army to take the good land, enter into the enjoyment and possession of the all-inclusive Christ, and defeat the evil forces.
Without the Lord, we can do nothing; He is the One who moves and works in our spirit.
However, without us, He cannot move, for He does everything in the principle of incarnation, doing all things in man and through man by having man’s cooperation and coordination.
It’s like the wheel within the wheel seen in Ezek. 1 – when the little wheel (the hub) moves, the bigger wheel (the outer great wheel) is also moving. He moves in our move, and we move one with Him.
When we move one with God in His move, we depend on Him and He depends on us, we are one with Him and He is one with us, and we take the land for Christ.
It’s God’s desire for His people to take the good land for their enjoyment and possession so that we may become God’s enjoyment and His possession.
When we do this, when we take the land one with Christ and in Christ, being in the Body, we do God a favor and make Him happy, for He wants to be enjoyed by us in many ways, and He has prepared and allotted the all-inclusive Christ as the good land for us to enjoy and partake of.
Christ as our Real Joshua is the Captain of our Salvation Leading us into Glory and into Rest, and He as Grace is Replacing the Law
Joshua was the captain of God’s army on earth; he led the children of Israel into the possession and enjoyment of the good land so that they have peace, rest, and full satisfaction.
Christ as our Leader is our real Joshua as the Captain of our salvation (Heb. 2:10; 4:8) to lead us into glory and into the rest of the God-promised land with Christ as our perfect peace and full satisfaction (2:10; 4:11; Deut. 12:9; Matt. 11:28-30).
Christ is our Leader; no human leader today is a good leader, but Christ Himself is the Best Leader in the universe, and He is in our spirit to lead us into glory and into rest.
According to 2 Cor. 3:18, as we turn our heart to the Lord and the veil is taken away, we behold and reflect as a mirror the glory of the Lord, and we are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.
The Lord Spirit is the glory, and He increases in us – glory increases in us; we are being led by Christ as the real Joshua into glory, from one degree of glory to another degree of glory.
This happens as we go through the different stages and aspects of God’s organic salvation.
Christ as our Leader leads us into glory through regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification; in this way, He leads us into gory!
Jesus Christ is the Pioneer, the Forerunner (Heb. 6:20) who took the lead to enter into glory, and we as His followers are taking the same way to be brought into the same glory, which was ordained by God for us (1 Cor. 2:7; 1 Thes. 2:12).
Christ cut the way and we are now taking this way to bring us into glory. He also leads us into the rest of the God-promised land; this rest is Christ Himself.
It is interesting that Heb. 4:8 says that Joshua didn’t lead them into the real rest, but Christ does – so we need to be diligent to enter into that rest.
The rest is the all-inclusive Christ; may we forsake everything else, especially our old religion and culture, and press on into the enjoyment of Christ as our rest.
He is our rest today in the church age; we can come to Him with all our toils and burdens and He will give us rest for our soul, for He Himself is our rest and peace (Matt. 11:28-29).
He will also be our rest in the millennial kingdom, and He will lead us to waters of rest and be our rest for eternity in and as the New Jerusalem.
Today we can experience Christ as our rest as we come to Him, forgetting about everything else and just enjoying Him, casting all our cares and anxieties upon Him.
Sometimes we may go on holiday thinking we get some rest, but when we come back from holiday we need to spend some time to rest from the tiredness of the holiday.
Real rest is in our soul, and when we take the Lord’s yoke upon us, the Father’s will, we will have rest.
If, however, we labor for the Lord in the church life and do not feel that we have rest but rather we feel it is so difficult and hard, we need to realize we have the “wrong yoke” – we need to come to the Lord to receive rest.
And His burden is light – His work to carry out the Father’s will is light; when we take the Father’s will and enter into the Lord’s work, His burden, to carry out the Father’s will, we experience rest.
We need to come to the Lord, again and again, take the Father’s will and the burden to carry out the Father’s will and enjoy rest, peace, and satisfaction.
When we come to the Lord, He becomes to us perfect peace and full satisfaction.
Joshua typifies Christ as grace replacing the law; the law is signified by Moses, and when Moses as the lawgiver died, Joshua came in to bring the people into the good land (Josh. 1:1-4; John 1:17).
When Christ came, grace came to replace the law. We are released from the law and brought into grace by coming to Christ.
Furthermore, Joshua typifies Christ as our Leader bringing us into Himself as our rest, the reality of the good land (see Deut. 8:7-10; 12:9; Phil. 1:19; Eph. 3:8; Col. 1:12; 2:6-7; Heb. 4:8-9; Matt. 11:28-29).
Hallelujah for such a Christ as the real Joshua, who brings us into the enjoyment of Himself so that we may enjoy rest and peace and satisfaction in Him!
Lord Jesus, we love You as our Leader as our real Joshua to be the Captain of our salvation! Hallelujah, Christ leads us into glory and into the rest of the God-promised land with Christ as our perfect peace and full satisfaction! We come to You, dear Lord, to enjoy You as our real rest. You are our perfect peace and You are our full satisfaction. May we be diligent to enter into the rest by coming to You with all our toils and burdens and by taking Your yoke and burden upon us. Amen, Lord Jesus, we follow You as our real Leader bringing us into the enjoyment of Yourself as our rest, as the reality of the good land! We love You Lord Jesus, our real Joshua, our real Leader in our spirit!
Joshua typifies the Present and Practical Christ as the Indwelling, Fighting Spirit, the One who Fights against the Flesh and Puts it to Death
In Exo. 17:8-16 we have the record of Amalek coming to fight against Israel, even before they were about to enter into the good land; Amalek typifies the flesh, the totality of the fallen old man (Gal. 2:16).
In the war against Amalek, Joshua took the lead; he led the people of Israel in the valley in the war against Amalek, while Moses was on the mountain praying.
Joshua typifies the present and practical Christ as the indwelling, fighting Spirit; He is the One who fights against the flesh and puts it to death.
Within us, we have the Spirit with our spirit, and this Spirit is a fighting Spirit; His job, His function, and His full-time occupation are to fight against the flesh and put it to death.
Amalek is warlike – it likes to war against the people of Israel; the flesh is warlike – it simply likes to fight and war against us.
We need to realize that our flesh never gets better; it will never improve. It doesn’t matter how many years we have been a believer and how much time we have been in the church life – the flesh never improves.
We can be transformed in our soul: we can be renewed in the spirit of our mind, we can allow God to operate in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure, and we can experience Christ in His inward parts.
But the flesh is the flesh, it will never improve, and only when we’re glorified it will be eliminated; when we are glorified, the body of our humiliation, the body of death, the body of sin and sickness, will be transfigured, and any death will be swallowed up by life (Phil. 3:21).
Our regeneration took place in an instant, and our transfiguration will be in the twinkling of an eye; however, our transformation is lifelong, it is a long process that we pass through in our daily life.
Hallelujah, Christ is the real Joshua – He is the present and practical Christ as the indwelling, fighting Spirit, the One who fights against the flesh and puts it to death!
Moses is a type of Christ as the ascended One who intercedes for us, and Joshua is a type of Christ fighting against the flesh.
Christ is the indwelling, fighting Spirit. As seen in Exodus, Joshua defeated Amalek; Christ as the indwelling, fighting Spirit defeats the flesh, and God will even blot out the memory of the flesh from the earth. Praise the Lord!
Even though the flesh is a hand against Jehovah, always at war with God and His desire, Christ as the real Joshua is in our spirit fighting the battle against the flesh.
We can cooperate with the Lord by exercising our spirit and being in the mingled spirit so that we may be in the Holy of Holies, even in ascension one with the ascended Christ.
Christ intercedes for us at the right hand of God, and this Christ is in our spirit (Rom. 8:10, 34); when we exercise our spirit, we exercise our priesthood (represented by Aaron), we come under God’s authority and take Him as our king (represented by Hur, the kingship), and we are one with the ascended Christ who intercedes for us.
As we walk according to the Spirit, walking by the Spirit, we will by no means fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Gal. 5:16-17).
The flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; these oppose each other so that we would not do the things that we desire.
The purpose of the flesh is to keep us from entering into the full enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as our good land.
But praise the Lord, in His economy God delivers us from the flesh to the Spirit so that we may participate in the blessing of the riches of the Triune God (Rom. 7:17—8:2; Gal. 3:14; Eph. 1:3-14). How we love Christ as our real Joshua!
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for being the real Joshua fighting the battle against the flesh today! Hallelujah for the present and practical Christ as the indwelling, fighting Spirit, the One who fights against the flesh and puts it to death. We turn to You, Lord, and we exercise our spirit to be one with the interceding Christ in the heavens. We want to live in spirit and walk by the spirit so that we may no longer fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Amen, Lord, we want to walk by the Spirit and be one with the fighting Spirit in our spirit so that the flesh would be put to death and we would live in spirit to fulfill God’s purpose! Hallelujah for God’s delivering us in His economy from the flesh to the Spirit so that we may participate in the blessing of the riches of the Triune God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Joshua, msg. 1, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 1, God’s Charge, Promise, and Encouragement to Joshua.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Thou art our real Joshua, / By Thee the rest we enter; / Our full salvation is of Thee, / Our faith on Thee doth center. / Thou art the heav’nly rest to us, / Now dwelling in our spirit, / For us to enter as the land / And all Thy good inherit. (Hymns #188)
– Oh, that I now the rest might know, / Believe, and enter in; / Now, Savior, now the power bestow, / And let me cease from sin. / Remove this hardness from my heart, / This unbelief remove; / To me the rest of faith impart, / The Sabbath of Thy love. (Hymns #424)
– We’re in the land, we’re in the land! / O Hallelujah! In the land! / Christ is the land, Christ is the land, / O praise the Lord, He is the land! / He is the milk and honey, too; / The grain, the oil, the wine so new. / We’re in the land! We’re in the land! / O Hallelujah! In the land! (Hymns #1165)
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